


Together

by bluedragoninamber



Series: No One Is An Island [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BDSM Scene, BDSM themes, Clone/Jedi, Families of Choice, Jedi Code Breaking, M/M, Mace needs someone to take care of him, fully consensual physical punishment, jedi behaving badly, no order 66, some dark stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:57:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6992404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedragoninamber/pseuds/bluedragoninamber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mace Windu has reached the end of his rope.  Ponds, his commander, knows what he needs...and Mace finally accepts it.</p><p>Chapter 2-In which a particularly dark day of the war pushes Mace over the line...and Ponds is there to catch him.  *Heed the warnings.*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crossing the Line

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sagittarian_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagittarian_dragon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [After Battle Meditation (Rex/Anakin)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6934225) by [sagittarian_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagittarian_dragon/pseuds/sagittarian_dragon). 
  * Inspired by [Deciding](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6938533) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly). 
  * Inspired by [A Quiet Evening](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6941227) by [Ylevihs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylevihs/pseuds/Ylevihs). 
  * Inspired by [Rest & Revelation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6584554) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly). 



** Disclaimer ** **: I don’t own it, and I am making no money off of it.**

 ** AN ** **: This fic is a gift for sagittarian_dragon. I came across her Rex/Anakin fic and found out that she is another lover of Mace/Ponds (a pairing which seems to have no fics at all). So this is my first contribution to filling that lack. I’m not overly concerned with canon here, so please don’t fuss with me over details. I might make a series out of this because we need more Mace/Ponds and well, more Clone/Jedi fics in general. And there is no Order 66 disaster in this AU. So yes, this AU is another one of those “nobody dies” AUs.**

            Every muscle in Mace’s body was tense. It was the end of another long day in this never-ending war…a war with too many casualties in which Jedi raised to be peacekeepers had become military generals and their soldiers were clones. And it had taken a war to acknowledge that the clones were anything but droids.

            Especially the one who was currently watching Mace struggle not to fall apart. With great difficulty, Mace finally mastered himself enough to turn and face his commander. As always, he sought to project Jedi serenity, but the facade was thin and frayed. One look into Ponds’ brown eyes told him that his commander could see right through it.

            “Do you need something, Commander?” Mace asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Meditation might have done him some good, but he’d been unable to reach his center for the past week. Meditation did not keep good company with casualty lists, and even when he managed to sleep, he saw the faces of the lost in his dreams. Every clone…no…every soldier…every man…he’d lost since he’d taken command in this Force-forsaken war returned to haunt him.

            Ponds’ expression exuded a level of compassion and empathy that nearly took Mace’s breath away. It was all he could do not to reach out and touch him. Mace was finding that the longer this war dragged on, the more he hungered for simple touch. Certainly there was sensuality with it…especially with the man in front of him…but far beyond that, Mace found he longed for that physical connection, that tangible reassurance that others beside himself were alive and going through the very same things he was.

            Mace was beginning to admit that what Obi-Wan had shouted at him the last time Mace had brought up the Code, a few weeks previous, was perhaps much more true than Mace had wanted to admit.

            “The Code was written for peacetime, Mace! It was meant for docile, peace-keeping Jedi going about their merry way! It has about as much application to us as a lightsaber does on Bandomeer!” Obi-Wan had fled the room at that point, followed, as always, by Cody.

            Mace had realized then that he wasn’t the only one just trying to survive in the nightmare that their lives had become. Obi-Wan never voluntarily brought up Bandomeer, and Mace abruptly decided that the Code was another thing the two of them did not need to discuss. Especially after what he saw later that night.

            On his way back to his quarters after slogging through a stack of mission reports, noise in a dark alcove had revealed none other than Obi-Wan and Cody. They were a clumsy, awkward, glorious mishmash of hands and lips, crushed against each other in a way that could not be mistaken for anything but what it was.

            They had not seen Mace. And Mace had not said a word. He’d simply turned and gone on his way. He could have berated them. He certainly could have lectured Obi-Wan, even reported him to the Council, though what few members of the Council were not commanding armies would have been able to do little save for shouting at Obi-Wan over his com link.

            But Mace did none of those things. In that moment, the only thing that he was thinking was how badly he wished it was him in Obi-Wan’s place…and Ponds pinning him to the wall. So he’d turned away, attempting to give that desire, that soul-deep hunger, that passion (and wasn’t that the deadliest of them all) to the Force. The Force did not seem interested in accepting them. But Mace had not realized that someone else had been a witness…and that Ponds had seen the look that had passed over Mace’s usually serene Jedi façade.

            Now, as Mace watched, nearly shaking with the effort it was taking to stand still, Ponds came to within arms’ reach of his Jedi general.

            “Actually, General, I was wondering if there is something you need.” Ponds smiled.

            Mace didn’t trust himself to speak.

            “If it helps any, sir, I was there when you saw General Kenobi and Cody engaged in…intimate activities.” Ponds watched him with brown eyes that seemed to brim with affection…the kind of affection that Mace couldn’t admit that he craved. “And I saw how you looked at them. You wanted what they have.”

            Ponds’ voice got quieter. “You can have that, sir, that and more. All you have to do is say the word.” He sighed. “Stop pushing us away, General. You need us, and you want us. My brothers and I are ready to pull you into the embrace of our family and never let you go.” He swallowed hard, and Mace realized that Ponds was nervous. “You could spend the night in my arms…every night, if that is your wish. Just as Kenobi does with Cody and Tano does with Rex and Anakin…and all your other Jedi commanding us. As I understand it, Koon sits on the deck and tells bedtime stories to his Wolfpack…Jedi stories told to your younglings in the crèche.” Ponds smiled. “Though he has his favorite as well…he spends his nights with Wolffe.” Ponds tilted his head, raking his gaze openly over his Jedi general. “We want to give you the love and family you crave, sir, but you have to let us in.”

            Mace blinked. He would have said he was stunned, but somehow, he wasn’t. Not with Ponds, not with his men who never seemed to stop surprising him. He reached out to the Force and was overwhelmed by the sense of rightness he felt. Obi-Wan had been right. The Code was no use to them, here and now. Later…if there was a later…they could figure out the rest.

            Mace thought of all the things that he should say. But in the end, there was only one word he managed to speak.

            “Please.” He held out his hand, and it trembled ever so slightly. His throat closed off his voice.

            But Ponds understood. “All you had to do was ask, sir.”

            And then that smile was on Ponds’ face, and his strong hand had clasped Mace’s own and was pulling him toward him. Mace found that all the resistance had drained from his body, and he went willingly when Ponds’ arms wrapped around him. Mace gasped, the simple embrace nearly overwhelming him as the noose of control that he’d kept on all his emotions for the past decades finally slipped free.

            Ponds kissed him.

            It was that kiss that Mace would later think of as the moment of his undoing…the moment he finally let himself fall…not fall to the Dark but into the brightest Light he had ever known. Ponds kissed him with an increasingly confident passion as Mace melted against him. Though Mace was taller, he found himself clinging to Ponds with a neediness that would have embarrassed him if Ponds had not kissed away his blush and all but carried him to the bed. Mace made a distracted attempt to begin the process of stripping himself, but Ponds gently pushed his hands away.

            “Let me, sir. Please.” Ponds’ nervousness resurfaced, muscles tensing, and Mace found himself reaching out to trace the strong contours of Ponds’ face with trembling fingers.

            “Only if you call me by my name,” he whispered.

            Ponds’ brown eyes widened, and the smile that graced his face was brilliant.

            “Mace,” Ponds whispered against the other man’s lips as he kissed him again.

            Mace could not remember the last time he had been at anyone’s mercy. In the few sexual encounters he had participated in, he had always been the dominant party. But he had never felt freer than he did in that moment as he completely surrendered himself to Ponds, letting the other man do what he wished. The combination of clothing that he wore, a mix of Jedi robes and adapted armor, found its way to the floor piece by piece. It took twice as long as it should have because Ponds seemed intent on touching and kissing every bit of bare skin as it was exposed. Somehow, Ponds managed to strip off his remaining clothing at the same time so that by the time Mace was naked, so was he.

            On his back on the bed, Mace stared up at Ponds. The other man straddled him, his gaze raking over him, and that beloved brown gaze was brimming with lust and passion. Mace felt his own lust and passion rise, and for the first time since Jedi teachings had taken hold, he did not even try to release them into the Force. Instead, he smirked and reached up to pull Ponds down to him, twining his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist, bringing the other man’s weight fully down on top of him.

            Mace knew the words. He had heard them often enough, in various languages…dirty talk, he had thought them. But not now. Not in this moment. Not with this man. He’d once heard someone say that even the dirtiest word could be a love word in the right situation. He understood that now.

            “Fuck me, Ponds.” He gave up the last bit of restraint he had and ground his cock against Ponds’ own, relishing the rush as both of them hardened to steel beneath the onslaught.

            Ponds’ eyes widened even as his body clamped down hard around Mace.

            “Anything you want, Mace,” he promised, and then he was as good as his word.

            Ponds’ lips shifted from a tender brush of affection to passionate mauling in an instant. Mace found himself gasping for breath as the other man’s talented tongue engaged his own in a frantic game of chase, and when Ponds’ teeth accidentally grazed his lip, Mace returned the favor in a way that left no doubt that Mace had enjoyed it. Suddenly, the mauling became literal, and Mace and Ponds would find out the next day that they would have to find an excuse for their bruised, bitten lips.

            Ponds seemed to think that Mace’s body was a buffet for him to feast on, and he was doing his best to sample absolutely everything. Mace’s neck was sweet and tender beneath his lips and teeth, his collarbone strong and smooth. Right between his nipples, Ponds stumbled on a bit of skin that that made Mace cry out when he kissed it, and when he took it between his teeth, Mace dissolved into wordless pleadings for more. His nipples were an even more pleasant diversion, and Ponds did not hesitate to bite gently, grinning against the tender skin as Mace writhed beneath him, all his control gone and utterly abandoned to Ponds’ attentions. By the time that Ponds had worked his mouth down to Mace’s cock, his general was at the end of his endurance.

            Short nails dug painfully into Ponds’ shoulder. “Damn you, Ponds, fuck me now! That can wait for later!”

            Ponds had never been happier to obey an order.

            As carefully as he could with his hands trembling from the effort it was taking to restrain himself, Ponds picked up the lubricant and quickly slicked his cock. Ponds was pleased to find that, when he placed his slicked up fingers inside Mace, the muscles were already relaxed…some sort of Jedi trick no doubt. Whatever it was, it meant that the next instant, he was entering his general, and Mace’s low moan was all he needed to know that he was not causing his lover pain.

            All the same, he was careful, exceptionally so, inching his way into Mace’s body until he was fully inside. Ponds held still, forcing control over himself as he tried to read his lover’s body language and breathing to see if he was okay.

            Nails digging into his skin again gave him all the answer he needed.

            “I won’t…break…Ponds! Move!” gasped Mace.

            With a groan of his own, Ponds obeyed. Gentle rocking quickly became pounding thrusts, a punishing rhythm that had Mace clinging to him even as Ponds dug his own nails into his lover’s back, both of them grappling for purchase on their sweat-soaked bodies. More by accident then intent, Ponds deepened the angle of his thrusts and managed to hit Mace’s prostate, and the Jedi cried out from the sheer pleasure.

            It was all Ponds could take. One last thrust, and he was coming deep inside Mace as the other man shook in his arms. Ponds gasped for breath, stilling his breathing as he hastily checked on his lover. Mace’s eyes were dazed, but he was still hard. Remembering what Mace had shouted at him earlier, Ponds decided that it was “later” enough. Carefully, he slipped his softening cock out of his general’s shuddering body and moved down the bed into a more comfortable position. Ponds swallowed Mace’s cock to the root before the other man had fully realized what was happening and sucked hard and deep.

            Mace screamed...a scream that became a moan as he came in Ponds’ mouth. Ponds swallowed it all, relishing the pure, utterly abandoned ecstasy on Mace’s face as his lover came and came and came…and finally fell back against the pillows, panting.

            Neither of them had breath to speak. But Mace reached down, eyes still half-blinded by pleasure, and grabbed for Ponds’ hand. Pond went willingly, languidly stretching out beside Mace and reaching out to draw him close. Mace wrapped his arms around him. They kissed, Ponds a little hesitant, not sure how Mace would like to taste himself in Ponds’ mouth. But Mace kissed him back most thoroughly, grinning and licking his lips like a youngling eating a sweet.

            Ponds smiled, trailing his hand soothingly over Mace’s sweaty skin. “I love you.”

            A sound like a sob caught in Mace’s throat, but he did not cry. He buried his face against Ponds’ shoulder.

            Mace’s reply was muffled by Ponds’ skin, but Ponds’ heard it anyway. “I love you too.”

            And finally, entwined together, Mace and Ponds slept.


	2. Needs

** Disclaimer ** **: I don’t own it, and I am making no money off of it.**

** AN ** **: When I said that nobody dies, I meant that no main characters die. But other nameless clones, unfortunately, yes. I’m going to be writing about this same event in my Plo/Wolffe story, my Obi-Wan/Cody story, and I also hope to get Anakin/Rex started with this as well. Anyway, the idea is that there was an ambush that somehow caught all the units of clones in one place, and many died despite the Jedi heroically attempting to save them all. What follows is the aftermath. I got the inspiration for what Mace Windu’s home planet is like from the excellent novel Shatterpoint. In this AU, if you haven’t already figured it out from the last chapter, I see Mace as a submissive and Ponds as a dominant. There won’t be full-blown dom/sub dynamics in play here, but there will be BDSM themes. Warning for that and for a fully consensual BDSM scene involving the inflicting of pain. The only lemons are implied at the end. By the way, this is for entertainment only. Please be responsible regarding the acts portrayed in this chapter.**

            Even after they’d crossed that line the first time, things weren’t exactly easy between them. Ponds knew that, of all the Jedi, Mace was probably the most reticent when it came to relationships. Though Ponds would be the last person to claim that he was any kind of expert on the Jedi, he knew enough to realize that Mace’s relationship with him was decidedly against the rules, regardless of how many of his fellow Jedi were engaged in relationships of their own. Also, Mace, like Ponds, was extremely hard on himself. He’d been on the Council much longer than General Kenobi and had led it for a time. If there was ever someone expected to be a Jedi paragon, it was Mace.

            Mace wasn’t supposed to get attached to anyone. Ponds knew that. But for the clones, attachment was in the very fiber of their beings. It was a genetic predisposition, included to engender blind, possessive loyalty to their commanders. When those commanders happened to be Jedi…the handful of Jedi didn’t stand a chance against the sea of clones who had been given into their keeping. Or perhaps one could say the handful of Jedi given into the clones’ keeping. Either way, it had been inevitable. It was just that some Jedi fought it harder than others. Ponds was inclined to think that Mace had fought the hardest.

            And even after the fight was over, surrender had yet to happen. Ponds did not question Mace’s love for him, but he also was not surprised that he still had to constantly push Mace to accept what he wanted, what he needed. Ponds had talked to Cody who had similar problems with Obi-Wan. Cody had counseled patience and shrugged his shoulders.

            “Being stubborn is as ingrained in them as being loyal is in us. They’re not supposed to need anyone, much less to want anyone. All we can do is keep loving them. Eventually, it will sink in,” Cody said, his smile so much like Obi-Wan’s smile that Ponds stifled a chuckle. He wasn’t sure who of that couple was wearing off on whom. But they fit, and that was all that mattered…especially on a day as dark as this one.

            Ponds returned to find their quarters in nearly total darkness. Only Ponds’ enhanced senses allowed him to navigate the rooms, and even he couldn’t immediately tell where Mace was. In silence, he stripped off his armor and clothing. Then, Ponds heard a harsh sound, like glass scraping against metal, and he knew he’d found Mace.

            “General?” he called.

            “Don’t call me that! I don’t deserve the title!” Mace hissed, his voice rough with the emotion that he was desperately repressing.

            Ponds got close enough to force Mace to turn, backing him against the wall as he grabbed his wrists hard. His lover didn’t struggle, but he wasn’t eager either. Calling on the strength that was a clone gift, he pinned Mace against the wall.

            “It wasn’t your fault, Mace! There was nothing you could have done! It was an ambush! All the other units got caught in it too, and you Jedi went above and beyond the call of duty trying to save as many of us as you could!” Ponds was finding more and more that Mace needed him to be dominant with him. It was a role that Ponds had not expected but one that he was more than willing to fulfill. And Mace needed it now.

            “So many of our brothers…gone…because I failed!” The depth of self-loathing that Ponds heard in Mace’s usually smooth voice took him aback with its vehemence.

            “So many of our brothers…here…because you succeeded!” Ponds ground out, teeth bared as though by sheer force of will he could make the man release his guilt. But Mace remained stubbornly, torturously silent.

            They were at an impasse. Ponds knew that there were things that he could do, things that might help Mace cross that last line and finally break enough for Ponds to put him back together again. But would Mace let him?

            “What do you need?” Ponds asked quietly.

            For several moments, Mace said nothing, and Ponds wondered if his lover would answer him at all.

            Finally, words came. “Punish me.”

            Ponds had never expected for Mace to ask for it outright, but, from what Ponds knew of Mace’s home planet from the databases he had access to, such a request would be considered mainstream there. Apparently, master and sub relationships were accepted as the general order of things regardless of the genders of those involved, and domestic discipline including physical punishment could be part of that.

            Ponds had suspected from their first time together that Mace might lean toward submission. Mace’s request only confirmed it, and Ponds was not about to refuse him. Clones grew up fast, in more ways than one. Ponds’ experiences with his own brothers had shown him that his inclinations were dominant, and he had no doubt that he could give Mace what he needed.

            “Do you want my hand or something more?” Ponds asked. He felt the edge of tension melt off Mace as the Jedi realized that Ponds was willing to play this role for him.

            “Something more.”

            Ponds glanced around their quarters and saw a slender metal rod that he occasionally used to fix the locking mechanisms of his helmet. The smooth, cold metal fit easily into his hand. He held it up for Mace to see. Mace nodded.

            “What is your word, Mace?” Ponds frowned when the Jedi didn’t answer. “What is your word?” he repeated.

            “I don’t deserve one,” Mace said.

            Ponds scowled. “Give me a word, or I won’t do this!” Ponds hissed. Even with the strongest of his brothers, this kind of activity never happened without a safe word. Particularly when the person in question was seeking punishment rather than foreplay, they all knew that it was far too easy to cross the line from pain to permanent damage…of the body, the mind, or both.

            Finally, Mace sighed. “Tatooine.”

            Ponds nodded. “Very well.” He raked his gaze over his Jedi critically, noting the taut muscles and the slumped shoulders. But the man was still half-clothed, and that wouldn’t do.

            “Strip the rest,” Ponds said softly. Though his words lacked the snap of an order, Mace obeyed immediately. Ponds tightened his hold on the rod as he watched him, steeling himself to do what a part of him absolutely did not want to do. He was not a sadist by any meaning of the term and to do this to the man he loved…to his Jedi…no, Ponds did not want to do this at all.

            But there were more than just his wants involved here…Mace needed this, and Mace’s needs were paramount. His Jedi gave so much of himself…had nearly given all of himself during the grief-stricken frenzy of battle as he tried to save every last clone single-handedly. Ponds knew that Mace would have gladly died if it would have saved one more of his men. And though Ponds did not completely understand the Jedi idea of Falling to the Dark Side, he suspected that Mace would have done that too to save his own. It was time, long past time, for Mace to take something for himself.

            “Face the wall with your arms up and your hands flat against it,” Ponds said. It would give Mace something to brace against and give Ponds easy access to the parts of Mace’s body that could take the most punishment without doing any permanent damage. They would bruise, but they would not injure him so as to make him unfit for duty. However, they would hurt, and Ponds suspected that the pain was exactly what his Jedi wanted. He did not like it, but he respected it all the same.

            When Mace was properly positioned, Ponds spoke. “I will administer the hits until I judge that you have had enough, or you use your safe word. Do you understand?”

            A tight nod was enough of an answer for Ponds. It was clear that Mace was past the point of speech, and Ponds decided that the sooner they got this started, the better. He steadied himself for the first hit.

            The blows fell in succession after that as Ponds worked his way over Mace’s body. The steady beat of the impacts was like a tempo of loss, each hit like a drop of grief as Mace released his emotions in the only way that his Jedi-conditioned psyche would accept. Ponds watched Mace closely, attentive for the signs that would tell him that he’d pushed his Jedi as far as he could go. He doubted that Mace would even consider using his safe word, so it was up to Ponds to set the limits that Mace would not.

            The world narrowed to the impact of the pipe against his Jedi’s dark skin. Ponds counted silently, and finally, number twenty-five brought the hitch in Mace’s breathing that told him the man was nearing his breaking point. Ponds sighed in relief. He would stop at thirty.

            But as number thirty fell, Ponds heard something he didn’t expect. It wasn’t Mace’s safe word. It was Mace’s sob. The pipe fell, forgotten, from his hand as Ponds grabbed his general, managing without any sort of finesse to get them both onto the bed. He wrapped them in a cocoon of blankets as his Jedi buried his head against Ponds’ chest and finally shattered. Mace’s salty tears stung his skin, but Ponds ignored the slight pain. This was the moment that he’d known was coming, the moment that he’d been waiting for. Mace had surrendered, and Ponds could help him heal at last.

            He rocked his Jedi, remembering times that he’d watched Jedi comforting younglings and suspecting and hoping that Mace, sometime in his closely guarded past, had been comforted in the same way. Ponds stroked his bruised skin gently, murmuring quiet reassurance in Mandoa. Ponds had taught Mace the clones’ language even as his brothers had taught the other Jedi. Eventually, Mace’s sobbing spent itself, and his tears ceased to fall. Ponds reached down and caught his Jedi’s face in his hands, forcing Mace to meet his eyes. In that bloodshot, weary gaze, Ponds saw such sheer relief that it took his breath away. And Ponds knew the truth…Mace, like Obi-Wan, needed someone to take care of him…because he simply wouldn’t do it himself.

            “You will not apologize for this because no offense has been given,” Ponds said lowly, far too aware that Jedi conditioning was already demanding regret for his lover’s perceived weakness. Ponds freely admitted that he wouldn’t mind showing the author of the Jedi Code the nastier side of his fist.

            But he calmed himself, and he watched with satisfaction as the apology that Mace had clearly been preparing to offer died on his lips.

            Ponds tightened his hold on Mace’s face slightly, letting his nails dig into the dark skin.

            “Understand this, Mace Windu. You are mine!” Ponds hissed. “Before the Council…before the Order…you are mine!”

            The kiss that followed was biting and rough, and Mace’s reply was swallowed up in Ponds’ mouth as Mace spread his legs and drew Ponds inside. But Ponds heard him.

            “Yes, yours…the Council and the Order be damned!”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cinema](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7132223) by [sagittarian_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagittarian_dragon/pseuds/sagittarian_dragon)




End file.
